I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a water softener cabinet for housing the tanks used in water softener systems, particularly those intended for domestic use.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Water softener systems make use of two tanks, one for holding the ion exchange resin used for water softening and the other for holding a brine solution which is periodically circulated through the resin in order to reactivate it after a period of use. The resin tank is usually permanently attached to the water supply system, but the brine tank should preferably be removable in order to facilitate regular cleaning which has to be carried out.
In known systems, the tanks are either mounted side by side or the smaller resin tank is mounted within the larger brine tank. The side-by-side arrangement facilitates the removal of the brine tank for cleaning but takes up a lot of space. The tank-in-tank arrangement is compact, but removal of the brine tank for cleaning is difficult.
The disadvantages of the two systems have been recognized and some attempts have been made to overcome them. For example, Canadian Pat. No. 1,114,529 issued on Dec. 15, 1981 to Water Refining Company Inc. discloses a system for enclosing a side-by-side arrangement of tanks within a single cabinet. While providing an attractive product, this system does nothing to solve the basic disadvantage of the side-by-side tank arrangement, namely that it takes up an undesirably large amount of floor space.